Tempest
by xRaevyn
Summary: Chariot's younger self visits the future and meets Croix's older self, who is stricken with grief over her troubled past and events she wishes she could change.
1. Not As It Seams

Tempus Ante. The Flash-forward spell. Chariot had seen it in a book that sat behind the headmistress's desk, one that she had shown to Chariot only once. It was a very complicated spell, one that required rigorous focus, determination, a steady hand, and a steady heart. The counter spell required the same of course. And both required a large amount of magical energy, more so for every year one moved further up or down the timeline. Chariot hadn't seen the second spell, she wasn't even supposed to see the first, as both were forbidden magics left only to witches with daunting responsibilities. Chariot supposed she had her own responsibility to restoring magic. But what would be her excuse to visit her future? To know what she needs to do to get there? She still didn't know the second spell. Only the first. Though she had a feeling that she knew the witch who could send her back in time if she ever got stuck in the future. The same witch she could ask for advice on what to do in the present about finding the next word.

Chariot drew her wand, closed her eyes, and focused. The spell required a clockwise turn of the arm, as it extended, almost as if she was punching the air or jabbing it with her wand. She took in a breath. "Tempus Ante," she said, following the instructions. Nothing. Not a glow, not a spark. Chariot groaned. "I guess I'll need the Claiomh Solais for this…" She tucked her wand away and tried again, this time picking up the rod instead and thrusting it forward as she was supposed to. "TEMPUS ANTE!"

It was like falling through a leyline without a broom, there were all of these colors, violent violets, crisp cyans, graceful greens, occasional flickering orbs of things to come, faces she knew, or faintly recognized, some she couldn't make out at all. She watched the way the vines of color wrapped around this tunnel of light and barely had any time to trail them with her eyes before she popped into existence on the other side, barely remembering where it was she was going.

She half expected the place she landed in to be familiar, expected it to be the same field she had been standing in, the one she returned to over and over again to cast spell after spell. But the longer she stood, the more she understood, this was not the same place at all. There were so many machines, each with dials and knobs and inscriptions she could barely understand if at all. The lights flickered and hissed like a band of demons and she couldn't help but feel vastly unwelcome inside this place that she had somehow managed to spawn in. She wanted to wander around but every step she took from where she started put her stomach more and more in a state of unease. She stopped when she reached a table, there was a laptop, some sort of machinery that matched the tons of other machines around her, a large discus device that had two glowing lights on its front like eyes peering up at her, and a set of tools. She reached onto the table to touch the disk-like robonoid only to be startled by a noise. Footsteps. Someone was coming.

Chariot ducked under the table against the wall, backing herself further and further into the shadows under the dim light until her back was against the uneven surface of wall. She held her breath and waited, watching as a pair of high-heeled red boots clacked against the tile floor. She noticed the teasing length of red fabric that bobbed with every step, a cape of some sorts most likely, She took in a silent breath, and dared herself to poke her head out from under the table. "…Croix?"

Croix stood before her, albeit a lot older. She was even taller now, if that were possible., hair slicked back and over, and shorter too, eyes glazed, cold and callous from the years between them. "Either you're a ghost or an imposter…" mumbled the older woman. "And I dare to say I've seen enough ghosts in my life to know you aren't one."

"No, Croix, it's me! Chariot!" Chariot crawled out from under the table, holding up the rod. "I promise. You know I wouldn't lie to you."

Croix sneered and refocussed her attention to her laptop, typing away. "A ghost seems more likely than not now. Or maybe you're a figment of my imagination, meant to torment me."

"Torment you?" This Croix was not the Croix she knew. Sure she had grown, become more mature, and possibly far more beautiful, but not that Chariot would admit that, but there was something else off about her. "I don't understand. I came here for your help, Croix. I'm… stuck? Well- in more ways than one I guess."

"Stuck?" Croix's eyebrow raised for a moment before she shook her head. "I'm afraid I cannot help you."

"Well if you don't help me then I can't return to the present," Chariot crossed her arms, "or- the past in your case."

There was a moment of pause as Croix thought over their current situation. "You used the flash forward spell… For what purpose?"

"I wanted to know the next word," Chariot said, as if the answer were obvious.

"I can't tell you that, Chariot," Croix snapped back. "I can't give you any information other than how to return to your original timeline."

Chariot's face fell and she pouted, slumping her shoulders. She had come all this way for nothing other than a glimpse at her best friend. "Aw, come on! Why not?"

"Because it is dangerous to know too much about your own future," Croix looked at Chariot with cold, unfeeling eyes. "And I cannot meddle with time, not when there is so much at stake. I don't care how tempting the outcome is."

"Tempting?" Chariot raised a brow. What could Croix possibly want to change about this future? And why was she so distant and cold. "What did you do that you're not fond of?"

"I can't tell you that. I shouldn't even be having this conversation with you right now." Croix sighed. "The longer you stay here the more dire the consequences are to time. Time takes time to solidify, so if I have any chance of saving you from yourself, I need to send you back."

"Send me back? I just got here!" Chariot took a step back. "I haven't even got the chance to look around yet. By the way, what is this place?"

"You shouldn't even be here!" Croix growled. "And this is my laboratory. Which is exactly why I can't let you stay."

"Why are you doing some mischievous magic stuff in here?" Chariot moved to the table again, poking the discus droid. "What's this?"

"Chariot Du Nord," Croix grabbed Chariot's hand and tugged her forward, the green of her eyes lighting up with such anger. "Don't. Touch. Anything."

"Y-yes Ma'am…" Chariot swallowed, slowly receding into herself. Croix was still rather terrifying when she was mad. "A-are you going to send me home now?"

There was a silence as Croix stared at Chariot long and hard, and Chariot could feel her eyes dissecting her, taking her apart piece by piece. At last, Croix returned to her laptop. "What was the spell you used exactly in order to transport yourself here?"

"Tempus Ante. I thought about you and ten years into the future, and ended up here- oh- and I had to do this twisty thing with my arm when I casted the spell, like this!" Chariot proceeded to demonstrate the motions of casting the spell. "Clockwise. I believe the counter spell is counter-clockwise, but I'm not really sure what it is exactly."

Croix typed away, pulling up a list of spells and shifting through them until she found the one she wanted. "Tempus Peregrinatione. That is the counter spell. And you're right. It's the same motion, only in reverse."

"Amazing!" Chariot grinned, before pausing and looking up at Croix. "Can I come see you again?"

"You shouldn't," Croix said quickly. "But I have never once been able to stop you, at least while you were the age you are now."

"Ah so we're still friends then!" Chariot beamed. "Daw, I can't believe we've lasted this long. I thought by now surely you must have gotten sick and tired of me…"

Croix fell silent, looking away. "I need you to cast the spell, Chariot. Leave here before you cause any damage."

"Aw, okay." Chariot moved to give Croix a hug. "Thank you for helping me. I'll definitely come back and visit."

Croix set a hand on Chariot's head, and though she smiled, there was a hint of melancholy behind it, just where Chariot couldn't see. "Goodbye, Chariot."

Chariot moved a reasonable distance away, before she held out the Claiomh Solais. "Tempus Peregrinatione!" she shouted, turning the rod in her hand as she tugged it back towards her, disappearing in the same manner she had appeared, and leaving Croix alone to her own devices once again.


	2. Rift

Croix stared at the screen, watching the loading bar as it inched by, pixel by pixel. Red. Red like the color of Chariot's eyes, full of light and warmth. Croix couldn't look at the screen anymore. She turned around in her chair, turned the pen in her hands over and over, clicking it as she thought. She could have changed everything. She could have told Chariot what she had planned to do, how to stop it, how to convince her to stay. She wished she could have stopped herself from hurting Chariot, from all those years of bitter hatred and loneliness that followed, but she knew better. She knew she couldn't. She knew that changing the timeline would have drastic effects on reality, consequences that would solidify in other forms. Perhaps an injury, to either herself, or Chariot, or maybe to someone else, someone she knew. She watched the screens on the wall flip through security feeds, and watched Chariot, her Chariot, the Chariot of the present, as she went through the halls, Akko at her side. She watched the way her mouth curled into a smile, the bite behind it. She knew that was her fault, that shimmer of distain behind the embers of her eyes, those eyes that were once aglow. Croix had doused that flame, and she was choking on the smoke and ashes of her mistakes.

She wondered if Chariot would even remember their conversation, to her it had happened so long ago, to Croix it was only moments prior, and the conversation after she could still picture, though far more faint, ten years held such a rift in her memory. in the wake of where the young Chariot once stood, Croix sat, wading in the waters of shallow tear streams. She thought about her project, the one she had spent so long putting together, and thought about the ghost that had come back to haunt her. Chariot had called her a friend. Could she really save things between them? Not in the state things were. Chariot must have known that. Or at least known that Croix could not make that decision.

"Tch. Impossible choices…" Croix watched as the program on her laptop opened up and she got to work. There were only so many hours left in the day and she needed to get this done. Chariot or no Chariot. There was work to do.

—

Chariot had landed on something… fluffy? and squishy…

"Oh! Hey, Arcas! Sorry, I didn't mean to crush you!" She rolled over to hug the bear she'd landed on before rolling off and standing up. "Ugh. Okay. Where's my hat." She stood up, glancing around before noticing Croix, her Croix, young teenaged Croix, on the other side of her polar bear, holding the hat in her hands with a smirk.

"Care to explain where you've been?"

"I was… uh… elsewhere?"

"Uh-huh. Up to no good again, Char-Bear?"

"Croooooooiiiiix," Chariot whined. "I promise I wasn't, now can I have my hat back?"

"Can I know where you went?" Croix raised a brow.

Chariot thought about the older Croix, the way she raised her brow in the same exact fashion and how she spoke of altering timelines and dangers. "Something tells me you wouldn't want me telling you…"

"What is that supposed to mean? I just asked you…" Croix crossed her arms. "You totally did go somewhere you weren't supposed to!"

"N-no! I just- well… Okay, yeah I did! But it's only because I wanted to know what the next word was!"

"And did you find the next word?"

"No. But that's because you wouldn't give it to me—" _Crap. Chariot you just gave everything away._

"Oh _my_ god," _Chariot you're fucked._ "Chariot Du Nord, you did **NOT** go into the future!"

"It wasn't like you didn't totally wanna try time travel spells yourself! You were talking about it last week, and it seemed like a good idea, til I got to the future, and you were there, and you told me—"

"Oh no you don't- Stop right there, Chariot! I do not want to hear anything about the future."

"That's what your future self said! I'm not supposed to say anything because it will- I dunno…"

"Alter the timeline." Croix sighed. "Chariot, you have no idea what you've done."

"I haven't done anything!" Chariot tried to defend herself, tried being the key word. "Or at least, I haven't done anything yet. I want to know why you were acting so strange. I need to find out- I think something happened to me and I…" Chariot felt her eyes swell up in tears.

"Hey- none of that either," Croix quickly moved to close the distance between them, hugging Chariot close. "There's no guarantee that that is even our future you saw. The future is always in flux and as long as you keep making your own choices, then you should be fine. You can't let your fear of what this possibility might entail take root and steer you off the path you are meant to be on."

Chariot nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Y-you're right. Thanks. I should probably be focusing on here and now anyway, right?"

"Right," Croix nodded. "Now, do you wanna go study?"

"Sure," Chariot nodded back, giving a sheepish smile and taking Croix's hand.

—

Weeks passed, Croix had continued on with her experiments. She hadn't thought back to that moment since. Not when she had buried herself in her work and tons of cup-o-noodle packages. She had just dismissed her class, and was packing up her teaching materials when a portal opened overhead, and out came yet another instance of Chariot, a young Chariot just like the one who had visited her the first time. "You haven't learned your lesson," Croix said, not glancing up from her box of supplies as she tucked away tablets neatly. "I thought I told you not to come back."

"You did," Chariot said, leaning against one of the desks, as she rubbed her side. The classroom had not made for a soft landing like Arcas had. "But…"

"But? You don't listen."

"I don't," Chariot agreed. "And I wanted to ask you a few questions."

"I told you—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not allowed to know too much about my future, it'll effect the timeline." Chariot rolled her eyes. "That's why I'm not here to ask you about my future."

"Ah," Croix glanced up, ceasing her motions to give Chariot a soft smirk. "You think you can use my words against me. Nice try. I'm not telling you anything about the future. Yours or mine."

"Come on, Croix! That's not fair!" Chariot groaned. "I don't want this to be my future if you're just going to ignore me."

Croix froze for an entirely different reason now. She let the words sink in before she continued the task at hand, closing the box and pulling out her personal Tablet to call forth one of her roombas. "Fine. You can ask questions. But I get to choose whether or not to answer them."

Chariot's eyes lit up. There was the fire Croix had longed for, just as real as she remembered. She smiled more genuinely, that same tint of melancholy. Chariot picked up on it this time, but she didn't say anything, only interrupted it wth her first inquiry. "Are you a teacher?"

"Yes."

"Do you like teaching?"

"On some days. I prefer being by myself mostly. Though it's nice to feel appreciated by my students."

"Do the students like you?"

"Most adore me, yes."

'Why are you giving me this information?"

"Because it has no relevance to the timeline. Why are you asking for it?"

Chariot shrugged, "frame of reference? What are you working on?"

"Classified," Croix crossed her arms. "Next."

"What happened to me?"

"Also classified. No knowing about your future, Chariot." Croix gave her a stern look.

"Sorry, sorry, I just got curious." Chariot sighed. "Alright. What is the discus thing?"

"A Roomba. An evolved broom, if you will. It runs on its own system of magic and therefore doesn't require spell casting to fly."

"Why would you need that?" Chariot raised a brow. "What happened to your broom?"

"… Classified." Croix looked away.

"Oh." Chariot frowned. "I'm sorry, Croix."

"I've heard that before," Croix sighed. "Anything else?"

"Are you…" Chariot paused, thinking long and hard about how she wanted to phrase this question. "Are you okay, Croix?"

"That's…" Croix frowned. "I think that's enough questions. I'm going to have to ask you to leave before anyone sees you. I do have other places to be besides this lecture hall you know."

"Okay," Chariot said, sliding off the desk before turning back to Croix. "One more question though, just before I leave."

Croix took in a sharp breath, "hit me."

"Are we still friends?"

Pause. Croix wasn't entirely sure how to answer. She smiled through the pain, and lied the way she had lied to herself all these years. "Of course, Chariot. Always."

—

"What did I tell you?" Croix said, younger Croix, as she stood over Chariot. There was no Arcas to catch her fall this time. "Not to go off into the future looking for trouble, and what do you do? Go off into the future! Unbelievable!"

"I'm sorry, Croix! I just had to know!" Chariot threw up her arms in defense.

"Know what, Chariot? I told you, the future is in _flux_. It's not going to be exactly as it appears."

Chariot looked down at the ground now, biting her lip in silence for a long moment before she answered Croix. "I just wanted to know if we were still friends."

"Oh…" Now it was Croix's turn to fall silent.

"We'll always be friends, yes?" Chariot looked up at Croix, tears in her eyes.

Croix got down on her knees and hugged Chariot once more. "Of course, Chariot. Always."


	3. Torn

Months had passed now and everything was unsettling to Chariot. She felt like she was walking on eggshells around Croix, her Croix, not the older one. She hadn't been back since their previous interaction, and she could only imagine what they might say. She was terrified. But more so she was terrified of how Croix, her Croix, turned into that shell of a human being. She took every precaution she could to assure it didn't happen, from spending extra time studying with Croix, to asking for her opinions on every single decision she made from which outfit to buy to which spell to use for an exam to which side dish she should get along with her lunch. And honestly? Croix had had enough of it. Chariot had become too smothering. She wasn't even aware of how much of an annoyance she had become. It was as if she'd become a "yes, sir" type, and would listen to anything Croix would say, and while Croix might have wanted her to listen to some things, there was just no fun in that. She was drowning and Chariot was blind to her own toxicity. Even if Croix had a long fuse, Chariot was a bright flame, burning through it twice as fast as anyone else, and surely too close to the end.

"Chariot," Croix said, after she had asked Croix for advice on which side of the bed to sleep on. "I don't think it matters. In fact, none of it matters. And I swear if you ask me one more dumb question, I will personally see to it that you do not have a tutor to help you with Numerology."

"I'm sorry, Croix." Chariot pouted. "I'm just worried."

It didn't take much of an effort to figure out what had spooked Chariot. "… I thought I told you the future isn't certain."

"Then explain to me why it was the same both times I went." Chariot crossed her arms.

"Because the more you visit it, the more it will solidify. Time takes time to harden."

"That's what you s—"

"Chariot, I do not want to hear about my future. Especially not if it is concerning you this much."

"Don't you wanna know what I'm worried about?"

"Does it have anything to do with you trying my patience?"

"I don't know!" Chariot plopped down on her bed. "I'm just so terrified. I want to find the words, and save magic, but not at the cost of our friendship. You were so broken…"

"Chariot," Croix groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What did I just say?"

"Sorry, it's just unfair that I can't talk to you about this. You're my best friend, Croix."

"I know it's tough," Croix placed a hand on Chariot's shoulder. "But it's for the best."

Chariot looked up at the ceiling. "I sure hope so…"

—

Croix had just stepped away from Chariot, her Chariot, the Chariot of the present when she had heard the familiar sounds of a leyline time portal opening up behind her. "And what do you think you're doing?" she asked, turning back to the young girl standing before her. "You are not about to cause a paradox. Begone!"

"A paradox? So I'm around here somewhere?" Chariot looked around but Croix picked her up by her hood and dropped her onto one of the many roombas she had following her.

"Nope. You are not going anywhere near her. I can't begin to imagine the ramifications of you meeting your present self and foiling whatever plans are laid out." Croix had wanted to keep the small Chariot, not for any nostalgic reason, but for the sheer fact that it would keep the adult version of herself out of the way. But at the same time, she knew the longer this Chariot was in a timeline not her own, the longer she could cause havoc and the easier it would become for her older self to get the upper hand.

"You sound like a villain," Chariot crossed her arms and huffed. "Do I not even get a hello? I can't believe you aren't more happy to see me."

"Because I'm not happy to see you, I'm irritated." Croix walked down the steps of the tower quickly. "And I'm hoping to get rid of you before you catch up to me."

"You say that like I'm a pest in need of exterminating," Chariot stuck out her tongue. "I came here for advice."

"Like a moth to a flame," Croix mumbled, before ceasing her stride to turn back and look at Chariot. "I told you I can't help you."

"Hey- I would like to think I'm a butterfly, not a moth. They're far prettier." Chariot grinned. "And I know. You can't help me with my future. But you can help me with your past, can't you?"

Croix rolled her eyes and kept walking. "Absolutely not. I refuse to aid you in changing my past."

"But you've already admitted to not being happy," Chariot whined. "Don't you want to fix that?"

"There's nothing to fix."

"That's a lie."

"Chariot, I can't alter the timeline. If I do, there will be consequences that go far beyond you or me."

"This isn't altering the timeline, just guiding me on the right path. You do want to do that, right?"

Croix fell silent, still walking along. She'd reached the bottom of the spiral staircase and just kept going, trying to mentally talk herself out of giving Chariot what she wanted. It was easier now that there was a distance of fifty feet and ten years between them. She had imagined herself immune to Chariot's old charms. Though that wasn't the truth.

"We're not friends, Chariot."

"W-what do you mean?" Now Chariot was starting to get nervous, fidgeting with her hands.

"We haven't been for a while…" Croix admitted.

"What happened?"

"Classified."

"What. Happened. Croix?" Chariot tried again, more sternly this time. Croix only sighed. "Tell me!"

"I happened."

"What did you do?"

"Classified."

"If you won't tell me, then why did you bother telling me that we weren't friends in the first place?"

"Because," Croix turned around, tears in her eyes. "I need you to see, Chariot. I'm not a good person. You want my advice? Cherish your present. Because it won't stay that way for long. And stay away from me."

"Croix…" Chariot reached out to the witch before her, watching as Croix sank to her knees.

"Go away, Chariot." Croix's voice faltered mildly, and it took all she had not to let it break further. "Please."

"Okay," Chariot said, sliding off the roomba and casting the spell to return home, leaving Croix alone to her tears once again.

—

"Croix!" Chariot barged into Croix's room stumbling over the piles of books and papers that were strewn across the floor from the disturbance of the door bursting open before she reached the desk where her friend sat.

"Back so soon?" Croix asked, not bothering to look up. "I thought you went to hang out with the better me."

"Are you talking about future you?" Chariot raised a brow. "Because there's no way she's better than you- I mean- you're the same person, but this version of you is my version and that's all that matters."

Croix couldn't help but feel her face flush up. "Chariot, I think you're your own worst enemy sometimes."

"Yeah," Chariot sighed, sinking down next to Croix and laying her head in the older girl's lap. "You're not wrong."

Croix ceased what she was doing and set her hand on Chariot's head. "What's got you down this time?"

"I can't tell you," Chariot said, "You told me not to."

"Ah," Croix said, frowning. "So you did go to the future again."

"I know you said that the future is ever-changing but every time I go it's the same. What if I can't escape what happens to us?"

"Well," Croix placed a hand on Chariot's cheek, tilting her head up to make eye contact. "Then you'll just have to change the future."

"How do I do that?" Chariot asked. "The you of the future doesn't want to help me with that."

"Then figure it out. Use what you know so far and go from there."

Chariot nodded. "Use what I know, use what I know," she mumbled, thinking about what she knew and what to do from there. "I'm going to head to the library and see if I can't find clues on my destiny there."

"Alright," Croix smiled softly. "Just don't do anything rash, okay?"

"Of course not, Croix. Thanks for caring." Chariot giggled and bent over to kiss Croix's cheek really quickly. "Alright, I'm off! See ya~"

—

Croix had stepped out of the library after confronting Akko yet again and felt a shift, a blur, something changing within her memories, a flash of Chariot where Chariot was not meant to be, laughter, pleasantries exchanged, a soft peck on her cheek. Croix gripped the wall, bracing herself like the world had just erupted, and staring down at the floor. She reached up to touch the cheek Chariot had planted her lips on, lingering only a moment before she shook the thoughts away. She had plans. She couldn't let them be spoiled by something like this. Not when she was so close. It didn't matter how she felt about Chariot. It didn't matter. None of what Chariot did mattered. She had to keep going- she had to—

There was a glimpse of something in the back of her mind, a light that dimmed, a faded memory, there and gone in a blip. She couldn't tell if it was one meant to be there, or one altered by Chariot herself. She couldn't take it. Not like this. Croix had to do something. She had to ensure that Chariot was on the right path. For that, she would have to travel back ten years to her Luna Nova days. And without getting caught? It was all but impossible. But the day was arriving soon, the day where she knew exactly where Chariot would be. She just had to be patient. And pray that history could, in theory, repeat itself.

Croix didn't like this plan, but she didn't have much of a choice in the matter, not when her other, bigger plans were at stake. She gathered everything she needed and counted the days until the spell needed to be casted. Three days, she had plenty of time between now and then to set the next phase of her present plan in motion. She knew she would need to speak with Akko again, convince her to go to Wagandea with her supervision, abandon her on her trek up the endless expanse of tree, wait for her demise in hopes that her quest would end, keep current Chariot from interfering. But to do that again? A third time? She wasn't sure she could. But she had to. Even if it meant putting Chariot in danger. Even if it meant throwing her magic away yet again.


End file.
